Tioga Herald

Thanks again to PBS and Binghamton’s WSKG for broadcasting a repeat of the Barbra Streisand Las Vegas Millennium concert. The concert was called “Timeless.”

The concert began with a backdrop of a huge clock. In front of the clock was a tap dancer doing a dance number which was very captivating. Then we are brought back to December 29, 1955, and a girl playing the role of a young Barbra. The girl was a very good singer and appeared throughout the concert, singing duets with Barbra. A magnificent addition.

When in college, I dated the woman whom I eventually married. The two of us would share vinyl record albums. She said she dated me “because I had a stereo.” We shared this as humor. She and I both liked classical recordings. I had a decent collection of such albums, but she inspired me to purchase Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings” and many Brahms albums, among others. She also enjoyed Jim Croce, Billy Joel, Chicago, and Bette Midler. But it was various Barbra Streisand albums which we purchased. We enjoyed Barbra Streisand’s Christmas albums and her version of the singing of “The Lord’s Prayer.” But my girlfriend / ex-wife’s favorite was the song, “Evergreen.” She chose “Evergreen” to be sung at our wedding by our friend, Anna May Kuntzleman. So, the song, “Evergreen” has a place in my heart, even though we are now divorced after all the years in raising a family.

Highlighted lyrics of “Evergreen.”

Love, soft as an easy chair
Love, fresh as the morning air
One love that is shared by two
I have found with you

Like a rose under the April snow
I was always certain love would grow
Love ageless and evergreen
Seldom seen by two

We attempted to live up to the lyrics of “Evergreen.” We evidently once had the love hoped for in that song or else we never would have married. So, perhaps we should have sung another song Streisand sang in this Timeless concert. “Send in the Clowns.”

Interesting that the commentary during the break time of the concert mentioned that Barbra Streisand was hailed as the best female singer of the 20th Century. Frank Sinatra is hailed as the best male singer of the 20th Century. Sinatra, too, sang “Send in the Clowns.” Is there a message there? Silly me. After our divorce, I sang, solo and in concert, “Send in the Clowns.” I have yet to sing “Evergreen.”

My memory brings me back to a concert in the Syracuse, New York, area where my wife sang Bette Midler’s “The Rose,” as a duet. Both Midler and Streisand believe in inclusiveness for LGBT+. The lyrics from “The Rose” still inspire me and make me wonder. The last verse:

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring becomes the rose

Then I am brought back to a memory of singing with several gay guys in high school (one who later died of AIDS), a four-part male arrangement of “People.” The idea of love then is like a rose, but the love is the need for people – “people who need people” – people of any kind.

Finally, Streisand ends with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” Timeless, yes, as we remember the memories of the past and hope for the future. The dancer at the beginning is “Brother Time” and he appears at the end as the new year was celebrated.

Barbra Streisand’s concert was a wonderful statement about “timeless.” Makes me also think about the person I know who attended school with Barbra Streisand at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. A person who recalls singing in the high school choir when Streisand was in the choir.

I could have been viewing a rerun of Murder, She Wrote. Even Angela Lansbury (who appeared in Sondheim musicals) would have suggested viewing this Streisand “Timeless” concert. Funny how “Timeless” means so many events and people are intertwined in our lives.

This concert was one of “timeless memory” for me. Memories of the way we were. Thank you Barbra Streisand. Thank you PBS and WSKG for making this available to viewers. We need you in our lives.